The July 14 Economic Information Daily article apparently reveals insider information about real estate legislation that would combine several different types of tax and allow local jurisdictions to determine tax rates. The full article is available via CDT Chinese.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

Speech and popular will in China have in fact long been equated to forces of nature. “Stopping the mouths of the people is more perilous than stopping a river,” goes an oft-quoted saying from Discourses of the States, a text dating back to around the fifth century BC.

While controlling public opinion is a political imperative, the saying suggests, allowance must be made at the same time for the release of building pressure—otherwise, resentment will only amass and threaten the entire project of control. The people must be allowed, in other words, to speak their minds and make known their wills, even if their freedom to do so is limited as a matter of political necessity. The tension between obstruction and release is one of the defining dynamics of media control in China. And this deep cultural understanding of public opinion control as hydrological engineering has even more ancient associations in the story of the legendary leader Yu the Great, who is said to have revolutionized flood control sometime before 2100 BC by recognizing the need for channeling and irrigation as opposed to simple obstruction. The story of Yu the Great “harnessing the waters” is referred to in Chinese as dayu zhishui, a phrase in which the third character, zhi, is also the character for “govern,” “rule,” or “tame.” The story of Yu the Great has long been understood also as a political fable about the ruler’s need to control, channel, and harness the will of the people.

The overarching metaphor governing information and public opinion in China today remains hydrological, recognizing the speech act, and its collective power, as a force of nature that must be tamed. The official term, introduced by President Jiang Zemin in the aftermath of the political torrent that was the spring of 1989 and the June 4 crackdown, is “guidance of public opinion” (yulun daoxiang)—the idea that speech must be properly directed, in order to preserve social and political stability. This involves, on a daily, hourly, and now sometimes minute-to-minute basis, instructions from the propaganda department and other agencies concerning what cannot be reported and what must be reported (and an array of possibilities in between).

[…] The project of “guidance” is not merely what we tend in the West to call “censorship,” an act of cutting, excising, and obliterating; rather, it is a process of diversion, of redirection. Public opinion is not stopped—it is harnessed. Again, that complexly layered Chinese word: zhi. To govern, harness, or tame. […] [Source]

[…] The use of propaganda as signaling and the counterintuitive use of the Internet show the dexterous nature of Chinese propaganda strategy. But when it comes to the question of nationalism, the regime is on hotter, if not shakier, ground.

Young people, usually cynical about other creeds pushed out by the regime, have been particularly vulnerable to the renaissance of Chinese nationalism.It compensates for the decline in commitment to communist ideological principles and offers a distraction from the social problems generated by the rapid transformation of the economic system. Despite the many alternative sources of information China’s citizens can access, they remain plugged into the nationalism promoted by official propaganda networks, and any criticism of the Chinese government, especially from outside its borders, is viewed as criticism of the country as a whole. This was most visible in the pro-Tibet protests during the Olympic torch relay in 2008, when nationalist propaganda mobilized communities around the world to demonstrate in support of the Chinese government and against the perceived anti-China bias in Western media. But while this can strengthen the regime, the nationalist discourse online can also force the government’s hand. […] [Source]

Yang confirmed on Thursday that he had written the letter, but said he had not made it public. He declined to comment further.

[…] Yang’s letter said administration’s demands that articles related to 15 topics must be submitted and approved before publication made it impossible for Yanhuang Chunqiu and similar journals to function.

[…] Yang argued that the magazine had already censored itself for a decade, pledging to the authorities it would not to touch upon eight “sensitive” areas: multiparty democracy, separation of powers, stories on party leaders and their families, Tibet and Xinjiang pro-independence rhetoric, the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and religious issues.

“Please leave the popular Yanhuang Chunqiu a little bit of space to survive,” he said at the end of his letter.

In another letter to the magazine’s editorial board and readers, Yang wrote: “Times are changing. Maybe one day, under our opponents’ pressure, Yanhuang Chunqiu may have no choice but to perish.

Yet publisher Du Daozheng, 91, who has taken on Yang’s role since his departure, vowed the magazine would keep going. [Source]

The Communist Party’s man in charge of propaganda in Guangdong when two of the biggest media crises in recent years rattled the province has been promoted to deputy head of the Central Publicity Department.

Tuo Zhen, 55, made his first public appearance in his new role at a workshop on children’s literature in Beijing last week, according to the China Writers Association, which hosted the event. The promotion takes him a step higher in official status to ministerial level, a reward for tightening the reins on the province’s liberal media, according to one observer.

[…] Commenting on the promotion, a former journalist from the Nanfang Media Group, which owns the Weekly, said: “We fear the tight grip on Guangdong media will be extended nationwide from now on.”

“As soon as he landed in Guangdong, we felt the pressure immediately.” [Source]

Guangzhou-based independent writer Ye Du said Tuo was once a respected journalist, but had since taken to supporting an ongoing nationwide clampdown on freedom of expression under the administration of President Xi Jinping.

“His entire ideology seems to have changed,” Ye said. “You could say that the Southern Weekend incident was the starting point of this change.”

[…] According to veteran Hebei-based reporter Zhu Xinxin, Tuo’s new job will send a clear message to China’s already tightly controlled media that the government will continue to keep up the pressure on the industry.

“The space for expression just got smaller, because if somebody like Tuo Zhen has been appointed to such an important post … then there is less and less hope for this country,” Zhu said. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/yang-jisheng-lashes-out-at-censors-tuo-zhen-promoted-to-national-propaganda-post/feed/0Minitrue: Don’t Hype Story on Leiyang’s Angry Poethttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/minitrue-dont-hype-story-on-leiyangs-angry-poet/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/minitrue-dont-hype-story-on-leiyangs-angry-poet/#commentsThu, 16 Jul 2015 21:14:15 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184954The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.

Regarding the smashing of computers by chairperson of the Leiyang, Hunan branch of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles after his poetry was criticized online, all websites refrain from recommending or prominently displaying related news. (July 15, 2015) [Chinese]

According to the [Beijing Morning Post] report, on the morning of July 4, Xiong arrived at the office of lysq.com, demanding to see the head of the community website within five minutes or he would smash computers in the office.

When the countdown ended and the leader failed to appear, Xiong smashed one of the computers to the ground.

[…] He “was not familiar with the Internet and thought it was the website that had defamed his poems,” explained the executive, “and so he came to challenge us.”

During a quarrel with staff members at the company, Xiong said “It is I who smashed the computer, and so what? I can leave you a note!” And so he wrote, “Xiong Aichun smashed a computer of the community. Xiong Aichung, July 3, 2015.”

Xiong asked for 100,000 yuan in spiritual compensation from the company, and with a deduction of 2000 yuan for fixing the computer he demanded the company pay him 98,000 yuan in total. The two sides did not reach an agreement on the matter. [Source]

According to initial reports, witnesses commented on Xiong’s eccentric behavior, and his colleagues told reporters that he had a history of mental illness.

CDT’s Sam Wade translates two of the poems posted by Xiong:

In Praise of the International Healthcare Consumer Guide

There’s a guide for international consumers,
A crystal-clear little pamphlet.
Healthcare consumption is clearly outlined
And I write this poem in its praise.
All the experts served them well,
So all the customers rejoice.
After happily washing our feet today,
Tomorrow we stride up the mountain.

In Praise of Leiyang (4)

Leiyang: the foremost Daoist paradise on earth!
And the Sea of Bamboo is its heart.
Amid such blessings, should one cherish joy?
Only with appreciation can joy multiply!
Shall we bandy words about the affairs of the literary world?
Picking such nits is very bad!
Might I persuade you to douse the fire of anger in your liver?
No! It is only normal to channel this vital energy! [Chinese]

The incident has exposed the huge gap between Xiong’s literary image and the person he really is, because he could not even write the word “smash” properly in the note he left. But what has irritated the public most is his refusal to accept criticism, which authors, poets and artists should be prepared for once they enter the world of arts. Xiong’s reaction is a natural outcome of the flattery and praise he has become used to in his daily life, and reveals the long-standing administrative malpractice such as the lack of internal supervision and an atmosphere full of deceit.

Gmw.cn, July 15

Whether Xiong is suffering from some mental illness as the official response claimed is not the real issue. Instead, what is important is how an official is selected and supervised and whether or not Xiong is qualified to be the chairman of the local literature and arts society. The selection and appointment system of officials should be urgently reformed so that they are chosen on the basis of their moral integrity and professional competence. And a top-down supervision mechanism should be established.

Chinese netizens have raised questions on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo. “First, how can he rise to a literature federation chairman position with such a low literacy?” asked one (link in Chinese). “Second, why isn’t he subjected to the law after stirring up such big trouble?”

Among Communist Party officials, writing and sharing poetry is not uncommon. Ma Kai, now China’s vice premier, created a poem series(link in Chinese) on fighting floods, storms, and earthquakes.

[…] In 2007, China’s then-premier Wen Jiaobao published a poem in the People’s Daily newspaper entitled Look Up at the Starlit Sky, encouraging college students to be “people who care about the destiny of the world and the country.”

Huang also notes that the Leiyang Community forum front page (lysq.com) currently displays a notice saying it is under maintanence due to “soaring traffic and a large number of malicious DDOS attacks.”

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/minitrue-dont-hype-story-on-leiyangs-angry-poet/feed/0Saying of the Week: Understand the Motherlandhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/saying-of-the-week-understand-the-motherland/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/saying-of-the-week-understand-the-motherland/#commentsThu, 16 Jul 2015 17:49:32 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184922The Word of the Week comes from the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online “resistance discourse,” used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.

了解祖国 (liǎojiě zǔguó): understand the motherland

On March 30, 2010, Ai tweeted, “If you hope to understand your motherland, you have already started on the path of crime” (你如果希望了解你的祖国，你已经走上了犯罪的道路), implying that in order to truly understand China, one needs access to censored and suppressed information. In other words, the Chinese Communist Party does not really want you to “understand the motherland.”

Example:

Boniudechaonaiba (@啵妞的超级奶爸): If you hope to understand the motherland, you have already started to read a horror story. (July 11, 2015)

Can’t get enough of subversive Chinese netspeak? Check out our latest ebook, “Decoding the Chinese Internet: A Glossary of Political Slang.” Includes dozens of new terms and classic catchphrases, presented in a new, image-rich format. Available for pay-what-you-want (including nothing). All proceeds support CDT.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/saying-of-the-week-understand-the-motherland/feed/0“Xinjiang Terrorists” Shot Dead by Police in Shenyanghttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/xinjiang-terrorists-shot-dead-by-police-in-shenyang/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/xinjiang-terrorists-shot-dead-by-police-in-shenyang/#commentsThu, 16 Jul 2015 00:41:15 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184908The BBC reports that three men allegedly armed with knives were shot dead and another woman injured in a raid in the eastern city of Shenyangon July 13. Sixteen others, referred to as “terror suspects,” were detained, as was a 28-year-old Uyghur woman and three children:

During the raid, officers entered a rented apartment where they “discovered Xinjiang terrorist suspects” and were attacked by four people “wearing headgear, holding long knives, and shouting ‘holy war’ slogans,” the statement [by the Liaoning government and reproduced by state media] said.

Police then retreated and called for back-up. More than 200 officers, including an anti-terrorist unit, evacuated nearby residents and surrounded the building. A cherry picker was used to reach the seventh-floor apartment.

[…] Police then retreated and called for back-up. More than 200 officers, including an anti-terrorist unit, evacuated nearby residents and surrounded the building. A cherry picker was used to reach the seventh-floor apartment.

Pictures of the raid posted on a Weibo account owned by state broadcaster CCTV showed armed, uniformed men stationed on a rooftop and in a cherry picker cabin. [Source]

At least four Chinese media outlets—a state-run news agency and three commercial newspapers—published reports late Monday saying police in the northeastern city of Shenyang had shot dead three “Xinjiang terrorists” and wounded a fourth during a counterterrorism sweep in the city, which is the capital of Liaoning province. They cited a purported Shenyang police statement, images of which were posted on a verified microblog account run by provincial propaganda officials.

But many Web-based versions of these news reports, which also appeared in print, became inaccessible by midday Tuesday, while the original microblog post was nowhere to be found.

[…] This statement and its contents were reported by the state-run China News Service, as well as three leading commercial newspapers—Beijing News, Beijing Youth Daily and Shanghai-based The Paper. A person at Beijing News said censors had requested the newspaper to remove its online report that cited the police statement. However, copies of these reports reproduced by other online news outlets remained available as of Tuesday afternoon. [Source]

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, which advocates Uighur rights, said that according to local sources, the suspects shot Monday were among dozens of Uighurs who had been rounded up and arrested as they were trying to flee abroad through China’s northern border.

“China shot dead those who resisted,” he said. “China’s barbarian policy of shooting people dead before judicial interrogation should be prevented by the international community.” [Source]

Citing the Ministry of Public Security, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday the 109 Chinese “illegal immigrants” had been on their way “to join jihad” in Turkey, Syria or Iraq, and that 13 of them had fled China after being implicated in terrorist activities. Another two had escaped detention, the report said.

Another spokesman for the group, Dilxat Raxit, said China was “shirking responsibility for Uighurs fleeing because of its policy of suppression”.

[…] Sunai Phasuk, a Thailand-based researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters the Uighurs could face serious abuses in China, including torture and disappearance. The World Uighur Congress says many in the group, which includes 20 women, could even face execution.

[…] “We have very serious concerns of torture, unfair trial, deaths in custody and even the death sentence, but once they’re sent back there’s really no way to track their progress,” [William Nee, Amnesty International’s Hong Kong-based China researcher] said. [Source]

Thailand’s repatriation of over 100 illegal immigrants back to China is nothing but a legitimate and necessary law-enforcement cooperation mission in agreement between the two countries, and should not be interpreted as an ethnic or religious issue.

Some foreign governments have made unwarranted accusations on the matter, which can only be deemed as another unavailing episode of their long-time finger-pointing tactics to interfere in China’s internal affairs and disrupt China’s security and stability.

When getting to the bottom of such empty rhetoric, one will find that this issue is simply about a routine law-enforcement cooperation mission in agreement between Thailand and China.

To begin with, those repatriated Chinese citizens are not “refugees” of any political or religious oppression. They are illegal immigrants holding counterfeit passports in violation of laws of both China and Thailand. […] [Source]

“Terrorist extremists from within China’s borders are recruited to illegally exit the country. Through Southeast Asian countries they go to Turkey and from there head to the so-called holy wars in Syria and Iraq, receive terrorist training and bide their time to return,” the ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters.

“This not only seriously damages China’s national security, but also is a threat to the security and stability of other relevant countries and regions,” it said.

[…] In March, Xinjiang’s Communist Party chief Zhang Chunxian said that authorities had busted “extremists” that had returned from overseas wars, but authorities have offered little evidence to support their claims.

Many foreign experts, as well as rights groups and exiles, have questioned whether ETIM exists as the coherent group China claims it is. [Source]

[…A]s security at transport hubs like train and bus stations in Xinjiang has been increased, Uighurs are Chinese citizens and have the right to travel anywhere in the country.

Tong said Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language, were using that right to get to border areas.

“You can’t just stop them because they are from Xinjiang or are Uighur. You can’t tell from their faces if they are terrorists.”

Tong’s remarks underscore the intelligence challenge China faces in Xinjiang, where government officials generally do not speak Uighur and where many Uighurs harbour an intense suspicion of the state. […] [Source]

[…] The report documents cases where residents of areas with slow-track processing who were members of religious minorities faced delays of up to five years in getting a passport or were refused a passport outright, without being given any legally recognized reason […] [Source]

Fascinated by this constantly fluctuating stream of inaccessible terms, “Miao decided to devote her university graduation project to compiling a complete list of censored terms by searching for every entry in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary 现代汉语词典—word by word—on google.cn.” Initiating what another commentator has referred to as: “the DIY version of Jason Q. Ng’s work documenting blocked words on the popular Chinese social network Sina Weibo.” Miao’s graduation piece represented an extremely laborious, time consuming and meditative exercise- the strenuous need to document, word by word, the constantly shifting boundaries of online speech. The work could be read as a commentary on the human labour required by the government to monitor and patrol the internet, what at first appears as a futile exercise in state control therefore testifies to a deeper reflection on the ideological control of language and the limits of online expression.

[…] Exploding the notion that the Chinternet and the ’emancipated’ global internet exist as a set of binary oppositions, characterised by the dichotomies of avant-garde artist versus the state and repression versus emancipation, a much exercised stereotype in writings on contemporary Chinese art, Miao’s work highlights that the internet in China is rich with humour, subversive strategies for evading censorship and often playful critiques on the predominantly inane and banal content which the GFW actually ends up restricting. Her works illustrate that in many ways China’s internet is in fact fertile ground for creative expression and a humourous and playful outlet for critical discussion that blends satire with popular cultural and social commentary. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/miao-ying-net-art-and-cultural-hybridity-on-the-chinternet/feed/0Minitrue: July 1 Hong Kong Protestshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/minitrue-july-1-hong-kong-protests/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/minitrue-july-1-hong-kong-protests/#commentsMon, 06 Jul 2015 17:20:58 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184625The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.

There are reports that the Hong Kong opposition is holding a demonstration this afternoon. Carefully find and delete text, images, and video which touches on this protest, and strictly guard against the online spread of harmful information in support of the demonstration. (July 1, 2015) [Chinese]

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/07/minitrue-july-1-hong-kong-protests/feed/0Minitrue: Pull Blinds Down on “Island’s Sunrise”http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/minitrue-pull-blinds-down-on-islands-sunrise/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/minitrue-pull-blinds-down-on-islands-sunrise/#commentsMon, 29 Jun 2015 19:38:53 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184522The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.

Find and delete all news related to “Island’s Sunrise” winning Song of the Year at the Golden Melody Awards. (June 27, 2015) [Chinese]

Chinese television broadcast Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards live on Saturday, but blocked the Song of the Year award through a time delay. That award went to the band Fire EX for “Island’s Sunrise,” a song they produced for the sit-in at Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan last March. The three-week Sunflower Movement succeeded in halting a trade deal with China and invigorated youth political participation. The band thanked the protesters in their acceptance speech:

“I think this award isn’t just about Fire EX, but more importantly indirectly affirms last year’s movement and what everyone did to change Taiwan. I truly hope everyone will hold onto this enthusiasm and love to work together to make Taiwan a better country.” [transcribed from video]

The music video for “Island’s Sunrise” is a montage of scenes from the sit-in and clashes with police:

At the blog Thinking Taiwan, Michael J. Cole notes that when singer Huang Wei-chieh brought a banner on stage protesting forced evictions in Taiwan’s Miaoli County, Singaporean viewers were treated to a break in the program. But the cover-up of Fire EX’s win went beyond Chinese TV screens:

It was even worse if you were watching in China, where coverage was immediately blocked when the winner in the “song of the year” category was announced. For obvious reasons, Fire EX’s (滅火器) “Island’s Sunrise” (島嶼天光) — a song that became the anthem for last year’s Sunflower Movement, which successfully prevented the government from implementing a highly controversial services trade agreement with China — was unpalatable to the Chinese authorities. Unless the Chinese were able to bypass the Great Firewall of China, they could only conclude that this year, there was no “song of the year” in Taiwan.

Less nefarious, but still troubling, is the fact that while viewers on Taiwan Television (TTV, 台視), the official broadcaster of the event, saw the whole thing live, uninterrupted and uncensored, most news broadcasts on other Taiwanese channels later on did not report on Fire EX’s win. All of them instead focused on the awards bagged by Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), A-mei (張惠妹) and Hong Kong’s Eason Chan (陳奕迅). Focus Taiwan, state-run Central News Agency’s English-language service, ran a total of 10 articles on the event. None, however, headlines the winner in the “song of the year” category or Fire EX, which is only mentioned in the complete list of the night’s winners in an article titled “Jolin Tsai’s ‘Play’ biggest winner at Golden Melody Awards.” (To their credit, Focus Taiwan did run an article about Hong Kong singer Karen Mok [莫文蔚] expressing her support for last week’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that made gay marriage legal across the U.S.) [Source]

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/minitrue-pull-blinds-down-on-islands-sunrise/feed/0Minitrue: Three-Year-Old Can’t Put Xi Downhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/minitrue-toddler-cant-put-xi-down/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/minitrue-toddler-cant-put-xi-down/#commentsFri, 26 Jun 2015 19:36:19 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184481The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.

Yesterday’s Inner Mongolia Morning Post carried the story on the precocious child:

Wang Chubo of Hohhot is only three and a half, but his special abilities to read President Xi Jinping’s “Governance of China” and to add, subtract, and multiply have earned him the bronze medal in the Inner Mongolia regional division of the 2015 Good Chinese Child competition. He has also decided to give all his prize money to children in poor regions. Inspired by Wang, the three winners also gave away their prizes of 7,000 yuan and a two-person trip to Hong Kong and Macau to children in need.

During the competition, the host opened “Governance of China” to a random page. Wang seemed a bit shy, but he started to read slowly, his voice growing louder with his confidence. [Chinese]

The directive is aimed at curbing snide remarks about Wang Chubo’s literary talents, comments like these from Weibo:

Sanfanhuang (@三反黄): I can’t tell whether this is a good omen, or if it means the “Governance of China” is written for three-year-olds.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/minitrue-toddler-cant-put-xi-down/feed/0State Media’s Love Affair With Facebook and Twitterhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/state-medias-love-affair-with-facebook-and-twitter/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/state-medias-love-affair-with-facebook-and-twitter/#commentsWed, 17 Jun 2015 20:45:22 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184342Facebook and Twitter being on the far side of the Great Firewall hasn’t stopped major state media outlets from operating widely followed English-language accounts on both social networks. At Quartz, Josh Horwitz and Heather Timmons look at a recently launched Xinhua English series highlighting China-friendly Twitter and Facebook comments to report on the “complicated love affair” between China’s propaganda machine and the two banned American social networks:

[…] The emergence of the features highlights the complicated relationship that China’s highly censored, state-run media has with the world’s biggest social networks. Facebook and Twitter are technically banned in China, but hardly unknown to the country’s 640 million internet users.

Collectively, these news highlights are usually about as dull as Xinhua’s own pro-China coverage. Posts are cherry-picked to show how foreign media depicts China as a stable nation, with a competent leadership ready to handle its unique challenges. […]

The features add a little international flair (and sometimes blocked news headlines) to a publication that’s otherwise filled with the stodgy voice of the state.

But Xinhua’s reports on what people are saying on Facebook and Twitter about China also reinforce Xinhua’s own message—the country is powerful, stable and widely-admired. Rather than pretending Facebook and Twitter don’t exist, Chinese state media has become a savvy, yet unconventional, user. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/state-medias-love-affair-with-facebook-and-twitter/feed/0Peter Hessler: Why I Publish in Chinahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/peter-hessler-why-i-publish-in-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/peter-hessler-why-i-publish-in-china/#commentsFri, 12 Jun 2015 00:35:08 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184245Peter Hessler was The New Yorker’s Beijing correspondent from 2000-2007, and the author of four highly-celebrated books on China. Earlier this year, Hessler published an essay in The New Yorker outlining his experiences traveling with his censor Zhang Jiren and the man’s relentless work to maintain the integrity of his titles while also allowing them mainland publication, and questioning a common Western media narrative highly critical of authors who allow their work to be altered for publication in China. At ChinaFile, Peter Hessler again criticizes this ongoing trend in Western coverage of the censorship of foreign books in China:an imbalanced focus on the financial benefits that China’s burgeoning book market can offerforeign authors and publishers obscures a nuanced discussion of the topic. The author also explains in detail why he has allowed two of his books to be edited for a China release:

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed a problem with the coverage of the issue of Chinese censorship of foreign books. Last year, when I was interviewed for a feature in the South China Morning Post, the story felt imbalanced—it took more than a thousand words to reach a comment by a writer who noted any benefits to making more material available in China, even if it suffers some censorship. My colleague and friend Michael Meyer, who has written two books on China, including one, The Last Days of Old Beijing, that has been published on the mainland, has complained that journalists seem to avoid mentioning that foreign China specialists who work closely with their publishers are often able to include material in their books that otherwise isn’t available in China. “The focus in these articles is always on monetary, not intellectual, exchange, and on what has been cut, not what has been preserved,” he told me recently. His book is highly critical of the redevelopment of Beijing, and yet less than one page, total, was removed from the mainland edition. “More surprising than the three passages that were sliced was all the material that remained intact,” he says.

[…W]e need to be careful not to let the worst aspects of China influence the tone of our discussion. This is especially true during the current period, when the political climate in China has become increasingly repressive. These days, foreign journalists are subject to routine harassment by the Chinese authorities, and the Times has been treated particularly badly.

Nevertheless, our own discussion of the question of publishing in China should be more nuanced, with a genuine effort to hear the different voices involved. […]

[…] I suppose that I’ve “agreed to censorship,” but I see my publication in China in more positive terms, as a reflection of my belief in the importance of education and access to information. […]

Most reasonable people believe that foreign engagement in China should be judged on a case-by-case basis. […]

In the same way, I believe that some censored books can be responsibly published in China, while others cannot. […] [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/peter-hessler-why-i-publish-in-china/feed/0Minitrue: Delete Article on Disciplinary Official’s Deathhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/minitrue-delete-article-on-beaten-to-death-disciplinary-official/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/minitrue-delete-article-on-beaten-to-death-disciplinary-official/#commentsWed, 10 Jun 2015 22:16:03 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184187The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.

Find and delete the article “Qing’an Heilongjiang Disciplinary Inspection Official Beaten to Death After Reporting on County Officials.” Do not hype this story. [Chinese]

On June 8, Caijing reported on the lack of progress in an investigation into the death of Fan Jiandong, an official with Qing’an county’s anti-corruption agency. According to Caijing, Fan was beaten by a gang of masked men on April 2, months after a trip to Beijing to report on county officials. Fan died while being hospitalized on May 1. The article has disappeared from Caijing’s website and all other Chinese news portals, but can be read in full via Vancouver-based Chinese-language news website city365.ca.

The document, jointly signed by Fan and two others, accused the county’s Party chief Sun Jingshan and county head Li Yingnan for their alleged involvement in the illegal construction of a deluxe office building after the State Council requested all government bodies not to build any new office building for five years.

At least 30 million yuan ($4.8 million) was invested, yet the new building was not being used, the document read.

No suspect has been arrested, Caijing reported.

A staff member at Fan’s office confirmed his cause of death, but refused to confirm if he had been to Beijing. [Source]

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

“By providing illegal content, these companies violated regulations on Internet cultural management, audio and visual programs and services,” the ministry said in a statement cited by state news agency Xinhua.

The blacklist includes the 2004 Japanese show Terror in Resonance,” a 2014 animated TV series set in a Tokyo after a terrorist attack has destroyed the city, and Death Note, an adaptation of a manga about a high-school student who goes on a secret crusade to eliminate criminals from the world using a notebook with unearthly powers.

Subject to warnings or fines, the violators were also urged to take down the titles in question, the ministry said.

“The list is the result of evaluations by investigators, reviews by the ministry and the opinions of experts. It aims to guide web sites in the proper review and importation of comics and animations,” said Liu Qiang, a senior ministry official. [Source]

The release of the blacklist provoked passionate opposition from Chinese netizens, who criticized the Ministry of Culture for “censorship” and anti-Japanese bias.

“They should list anti-Japanese dramas,” wrote one person on Chinese micro-blog Weibo, referring to the proliferation of violent dramas about China’s resistance to Japanese invaders during World War II. “They’re gruesome!” [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/38-anime-titles-blacklisted-for-pornographic-violent-content/feed/0Censors and Sensibility: Writing In and On Chinahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/writers-heroes-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/06/writers-heroes-china/#commentsTue, 09 Jun 2015 04:04:25 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=184116On the Sinica podcast, Ian Johnson joins Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn, and David Moser to discuss foreign writers’ coverage of China, with a specific emphasis on the works of Peter Hessler, the author of three acclaimed books on the country.

If you happen to live in the anglophone world and aren’t closely tied to China by blood or professional ties, chances are that what you believe to be true about this country is heavily influenced by the opinions of perhaps one hundred other people, the reporters who cover China for the world’s leading media outlets and the writers who build a narrative to encompass it beyond the frenetic drumbeat of current affairs.

This week, Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn and David Moser are joined by accomplished writer Ian Johnson to talk about this phenomenon at first generally, but then specifically with regards to a piece Ian recently authored in the New York Review of Books called An American Hero in China, a look into the way China has embraced Peter Hessler and his writings on the country. We try to make sense of how exactly reporting is done here, what sorts of editorial decisions are made that affect coverage, and how the voice of the author struggle to make China intelligible to the outside world. [Source]

I heard about cuts to self-help, poetry, fiction, history, and reportage. The missing material usually involved Tibet, the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, or some shameful chapter of Chinese history like the Cultural Revolution or the Great Famine. (Sex could also get a book censored.) As the anecdotal evidence started to accumulate, it became clear that though cuts tended to be surgically precise, they were also extremely common. Only rarely was there outrage. Many were fatigued by the idea of having to police all their overseas editions. With international publishing, they argued, something is always going to get lost in translation. Many had simply decided to not worry about it.

On top of the lack of concern, there was also an Escher-like chain of deniability, with authors deferring to agents, who deferred to publishers, who deferred to foreign rights agents, who deferred to Chinese co-agents and publishers who said they were following their gut, trying to conform to a set of unwritten but implied government guidelines. The opacity and the web of shared but poorly delineated responsibility lets many people off the hook. In the case of Brooklyn-based writer Paul Auster’s censored Chinese version of Sunset Park, his latest novel, I was struck by the bold honestly of the Chinese publisher, Peng Lun, deputy editor at Shanghai 99, which co-published the book. Peng took full responsibility for his decision to edit out any mention of the jailed activist Liu Xiaobo from Auster’s book; it wasn’t what he wanted to do, he said, but what he had to do to stay in business. [Source]

Shouldn’t common sense automatically prescribe that authors and artists living in liberal, democratic societies not submit to Chinese censorship of their work?

Stunningly, a good number of people do, and their excuses and/or apologetics ring very hollow. Perhaps the most self-serving (and often narcissistic) is the argument that if even a portion of one’s work is seen or heard in China, it will have a beneficial effect.

[…] But what is most distressing is that those who deploy such excuses seem willfully resistant to acknowledging the most obvious and salient point about the whole issue: It’s not about them. It’s about those writers and artists in China who have neither the name recognition nor the cachet of their foreign counterparts. When those outside China acquiesce to censorship of their work — regardless of how they excuse such behavior to themselves and their colleagues — they are actively contributing to the further constriction of the space available to many brave writers and artists inside the country who (as yet) have none of the renown of their foreign counterparts with which to attempt to leverage the restrictions upon them. [Source]

BP: Censorship, if you tolerate it, becomes a breeding ground for prejudice and ignorance. The average mainland Chinese perception of the United States, Japan, and the West is different from the rest of the world. And that’s actually a direct result of censorship.

MX: Look at the TV shows about the War Against Japanese Aggression [a common Chinese name for World War 2]. Because of strict censorship in television, there’s so many of these shows. And they have influence. If you look at websites popular with young people, like [nationalist military fanboy forum] Tiexue, you will see so much about ‘kill all the Japanese,’ ‘exterminate Japanese dogs!’ ‘If there’s a war between China and Japan, let’s have a contest to see who can first kill 10,000 Japanese!’ [Source]

Murong Xuecun was among the writers who gathered to protest against Chinese censorship at the New York Public Library last month, after a government-sponsored Chinese publishing delegation appeared prominently at this year’s BookExpo America in Manhattan. Alexandra Alter at The New York Times reports:

The juxtaposition was striking. This week, thousands of booksellers, librarians, publishers and authors mingled at BookExpo, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where Chinese publishers were being feted as international guests of honor. To mark the event, the Chinese government sent a 500-person delegation from 100 publishing houses, and 26 of its top authors. Chinese publishers claimed close to 25,000 square feet of floor space at the hall and planned 50 events around the city, including poetry readings, film screenings, author panels and presentations from its largest publishers.

Not many blocks away, Mr. Murong stood on the library steps and read aloud from an open letter he had written to Chinese censors in 2013, after his social media account was blocked and its contents deleted. “You treat literature as poison and free speech as a crime,” he said. (Mr. Murong is also a contributing opinion writer to The International New York Times.)

He was joined by prominent American writers like Jonathan Franzen, Paul Auster, Francine Prose and A. M. Homes, and by the China-born novelists Ha Jin and Xiaolu Guo. They took turns reading works by Chinese authors who are in prison or under house arrest for their writing, including the Tibetan poet Tsering Woeser, the writer Liu Xia and her husband, the poet and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion. [Source]

The backlash did not surprise B.E.A.’s organizers. “This is not specific to B.E.A., and this is not specific to China,” said Ruediger Wischenbart, head of international affairs for B.E.A., who has also worked at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Such events, he stressed, are always coming under fire for their invitees. In 2001, four weeks after September 11th, the Frankfurt Book Fair hosted a number of radical Muslim publishers. “People would ask, ‘Why are they here?’ ” he said. “I would say, ‘That’s the role of the book fair.’ ” At the Frankfurt fair in 2009, which also featured China, two dissident writers were invited to speak at an event, then disinvited, then re-invited after German journalists and diplomats protested, prompting Chinese officials to walk out and the fair’s director to apologize to China. In 2013, B.E.A. invited Russia; two years before that, Book World Prague hosted Saudi Arabia. These events, Wischenbart said, are not forums for literary or political debate. “Fairs are very practical things.”

The PEN protesters argued that the Chinese government was exploiting B.E.A.’s pragmatism for political purposes. In a speech at the rally, Suzanne Nossel, executive director of the PEN American Center, called the expo “an opportunity for China to spread its soft power and show that creativity and literature are flourishing despite repressive one-party rule.”

That may indeed have been China’s goal when it accepted B.E.A.’s invitation. But when I visited the Javits Center, a massive glass complex on the Hudson River, China’s soft-power push didn’t seem to be making much headway. If anything, the China-themed events highlighted the failure of Chinese publishers to sell books abroad, and reflected the challenges the country faces as it tries to improve its public image and export its culture around the world. [Source]

What distinguishes our generation of writers is that we have lived through relatively rich historical periods. We all have in common that we have risen from poverty. Many of us grew up in the countryside, including me, Mo Yan, Yan Lianke, and so on. We all lived through years of not having enough to eat, of starvation, of almost starving to death. So above all, we share a kind of terror of the world. Because the world almost abandoned us.

On another note, we spent our childhoods and youth in a turbulent and especially politically unstable society. We lived through the Cultural Revolution, for example. At the same time, we have witnessed other formidable social transformations. Dramatic changes have occurred in this society since the Cultural Revolution.

[…] Thirty years on, the most significant change in Chinese society is that it has gone from being homogenous to very diverse. It is still a power-driven society, and it is also a money-driven society.

[…] What’s more, the subtle and illicit connection of power to money gives rise to shadowy, intricate, ironic, complex, and all kinds of bizarre and grotesque sights. Witnessing this transformation has had a definite impact on this generation of writers and their sensibilities. The kind of knowledge they have accumulated as a result is somehow richer as a result. Their work is more layered. It’s no less profound than the work of the May Fourth generation writers. [Source]